Taking a peek inside Notre Dame tight end Michael Mayer's world
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The lens through which Michael Mayer views the college football world these days is every bit as fascinating as the one that the college football world looks back at the Notre Dame All-America tight end.
A little more than a week before his junior, and likely final, collegiate season kicks off in Columbus, Ohio, the 6-foot-5, 260-pound face of the program is talking about quarterback Tyler Buchner’s growth curve.
“Obviously now, he’s QB1, so he’s gotten so much confidence,” Mayer said.
Talking about the Irish freshman tight ends, whom he believes will eventually enrich the school’s reputation for developing elite finished products at that position.
Talking about and trying to explain his skill of purportedly being able to block out crowd noise.
“It’s kind of weird,” he offers.
How did you get that way? Did you have annoying brothers and sisters?
“I don’t think that’s what it was,” he said, “but I did have annoying brothers and sisters. I don’t know, I think it’s just how I am. I think it’s just being focused, being locked in, lasered in. And I don’t need anything external. Even a home game, I don’t need crowd noise.”
The level of his play, when fifth-ranked Notre Dame visits No. 2 Ohio State in the antithesis of an Irish home game, will have a lot to do with the decibels inside Ohio Stadium on Sept. 3 as well as the level of antipathy.
His laser focus in August training camp and the months leading up to it has been all about becoming a better version of the player who last season reset Notre Dame’s single-season school records for tight end receptions (71), receiving yards (840) and TD catches (7).
In just duplicating those numbers in 2022, he’d also claim the career marks in those categories — at a school where every starting tight end after Billy Palmer in 2003 has gotten drafted and at the one, which in 1977, produced the only player at that position (Ken MacAfee) to finish third (or higher) in the Heisman Trophy voting in the past 50 years.
Mayer shares the single-game tight end reception mark (9) with MacAfee and Chicago Bear Cole Kmet. He’s the only one of them, though, to do it twice.
“The way (Mayer) prepares and he works within a practice in the offseason and who he is,” Irish first-year tight ends coach Gerad Parker said Wednesday after practice. “It is no surprise as to who he’s become.”
Mayer finds plenty of inspiration to keep pushing, including from one of the standout tight ends he passed near the top on his way up in rewriting the Irish record book — Kyle Rudolph.
The two have had a relationship since Mayer was a high school standout at Covington (Ky.) Catholic, across the Ohio River from where Rudolph starred at Cincinnati Elder high before landing at ND in 2008.
“In high school, whenever we had a bye weekend, I always went to either a LaSalle game or an Elder game across the river,” Mayer said. “Just because there were always big time games going on over there. And I had nothing to do on a Friday night.
“And when I committed to Notre Dame, he kind of hit me up. And my dad had a relationship with his dad. So that’s kind of how we met. So, great guy. … very humble guy. Very kind guy. I mean he doesn’t have to tell me anything else. I just want to be like that guy. I want to act just like that guy when he’s in public, all that stuff.”
This summer Mayer had a chance to learn from some of other NFL tight ends at TEU (Tight End University) in Nashville, Tenn., an annual training summit of NFL tight ends organized by San Francisco 49er George Kittle, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, and former NFL tight end Greg Olsen.
Mayer was one of only three college tight ends invited.
“I'm not thinking about Tight End U right now,” he said. “I’m thinking about O-S-U, obviously,” Mayer said. “But the first thing I knew when I came out of there was, ‘Dang, I’ve got to get better at some stuff.’
“These guys were getting out of their breaks faster than me. They were getting up to catch balls, that type of thing. And I think that was one of the reasons I wanted to go. What did these guys do differently than I do? How are they getting out of their breaks faster than I do? And I got a lot out of it.”
He, in turn, now helps teach the rest of Notre Dame’s talented tight end group — junior Kevin Bauman, sophomore Cane Berrong, and freshmen Eli Raridon and Holden Staes — all of whom are vying to join Mayer in multiple-tight end sets. (Sophomore Mitchell Evans is out indefinitely with a foot injury.)
“Oh they’re going to be good,” Mayer said of the freshmen. “They’re going to be really good. They both have really great catching abilities. Like I kind of see my freshman self in there..
“Those guys can run. They’ve got a little bit of weight to put on, a little bit more muscle to get, but they can run. They’re going to be fast. They're going to be strong. Notre Dame tight ends will be set up for a good amount of time.”
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